Η ΓΝΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΣΤΟ ΣΧΟΛΕΙΟ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΑ ΑΠΟ ΑΥΤΟ
Researchers have discovered a fascinating new link between the gut and the brain: swallowing nutritious food causes the release of the feel-good chemical serotonin. The findings open the door to developing new treatments for eating disorders.
Category: Health & Wellbeing, Lifestyle
Tags: Food, Brain, University of Bonn, University of Cambridge
Sensors such as electrocardiogram (EEG) electrodes can help save a person's life, but the adhesive patches used to attach them may also harm that person's skin. An experimental new medical patch addresses that issue by utilizing octopus-inspired suckers.
Tags: KAUST, Skin, Biomimicry, Dressings
OK, the Volkswagen Transporter (aka Microbus, aka Bulli, aka Type 2, aka Kombi ...) didn't actually go anywhere, but the T6.1 has felt like a lame duck for a while now, especially following the big split-off of the new Multivan. All that changes today at IAA Transportation 2024 in Hanover, Germany. By far the most notable debut of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles' hometown multi-product offensive, the new 7th-gen Transporter looks a little softer than its predecessor but packs more cargo space, more payload and more towing capacity, readying it for jobs of all sizes.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Volkswagen, Van, Electric Vehicles, iaa-transportation-2024, PHEV
It's now even easier to replace your iPhone's default camera app with Halide, a third-party option that offers advanced camera features, such as manual shutter speed and ISO control, histograms and even a mode that claims to strip away almost all of Apple's AI image processing. Halide's 2.16 update, out today, lets you add it as a control on your lock screen, which means you can use it to take pictures without unlocking your phone.
Previously, Apple's default camera app was the only one you could use without entering your passcode or using biometric authentication such as FaceID or TouchID. That gave it a speed advantage over third-party options.
Apple used to add an extra step if you wanted to use a third-party camera appHalide and apps like it could provide lock screen widgets that live under the clock, but unlike the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen, those would only work after you'd unlocked your phone. The tiny bit of extra time and friction could be the difference between getting the shot and missing it, and that's the problem Halide's latest update lets you sidestep.
The one catch is that you'll have to update to the brand-new iOS 18 to get this functionality. Once you're running the latest OS and have downloaded the new Halide update, you can long-press on your lock screen, then press the 'Customize' button. From there, tap your lock screen again, then tap the remove button on whichever shortcut you'd like to replace with Halide. (Camera and Flashlight are the default shortcuts.) It should now be a blank '+' button that you can tap to bring up the Controls selector, which you can use to select Halide from the Capture section.
Selecting Halide from the Capture section will let you launch it straight from the lock screen.After doing this, you'll be able to jump straight to Halide from the lock screen without having to authenticate with your passcode or biometrics (though you'll still have to unlock your phone if you want to do anything else with it). You can also still access the default camera app from the lock screen by swiping left from the right edge of the screen.
If Halide isn't your preferred camera app, fear not; other developers should also be able to implement this feature, providing they update their apps for iOS 18.
While the lock screen shortcut is the fastest way to access the camera on Apple's current phones, that will change with the upcoming iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, which include a dedicated 'Camera Control' that will launch the camera. While Apple has said that you'll be able to use the button's touch sensitivity in third-party apps to adjust various settings, it's currently unclear whether you'll be able to launch those apps with it as well. If Apple only allows you to launch its app with the control, it would put the stock app back on top, at least in terms of how fast you can open it.
You can download Halide via the App Store. It costs $19.99 a year, or $2.99 a month, and is also available as a $59.99 one-time purchase.
While there are now a few different companies that build self-balancing one-wheeled electric skateboards, Future Motion was one of the very first. The California-based firm has just announced the latest addition to its lineup, the small but mighty Pint S.
Category: Urban Transport, Transport
Tags: Self Balancing Unicycle, Self-balancing, Electric Skateboards
The Mondo is the latest model created in-house by online marketplace Tiny House Listings. Featuring a spacious and open interior that includes a downstairs bedroom and lots of storage, the tiny house would be a good fit for a couple wanting to downsize but still live in comfort.
Category: Tiny Houses, Lifestyle
Tags: Building and Construction, Micro-House, Tiny Footprint, House, Home
Sony has launched a pair of pricey 4K home theater projectors packing a modified flavor of the XR video processing technology found in its Bravia TVs for the promise of "professional-grade visual experiences inside the home."
Category: Home Entertainment, Technology
Tags: Sony, Projectors, home theater, 4K UHD, Laser
You don't need to have caught sight of these four stunning mountains that line the Pacific Northwest (PNW) to know what a unique set of cups this is – but if you have, you'll appreciate what a well-crafted tribute they are to one of the most beautiful corners of the US.
Tags: Kickstarter, Mountain, Hiking, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, sustainable design
We're starting off the week with a mechanical marvel: a homemade dragster with dual Rolls-Royce jet engines that's been 17 years in the making – and could potentially hit 400 mph.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: High-speed, Drag Racing, Jets
From 350,757 coin flips to prove probability to assessing the swimming abilities of dead trout, the winners of the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize have been recognized for their work in absurd scientific research. And somewhat fitting for the recipients, they all walked away with a coveted $100-trillion Zimbabwean banknote, worth around US$0.40.
Category: Science
Tags: Ig Nobel Prize, Research, Animal science, Experimental
Most of us don’t eat as much fruit and veggies as we know we should, but that goal might now be a bit more achievable. Scientists in Spain have engineered a new “Golden Lettuce” with 30 times more nutrients than the regular green stuff.
Category: Health & Wellbeing, Lifestyle
Tags: Genetic engineering, Vegetables, Food, Food technology, Crops, Nutrition
The Black Lives Matter protests that spread across the US in 2020 caused a rapid drop in racial bias, but by the end of the year, it had risen again, according to new research. While the protests shone a light on institutional racism, this study highlights the need for using other measures to ensure long-lasting change.
Category: Research Watch, Science
After almost five decades sailing through space, NASA is trying to squeeze a few more years out of the venerable Voyager 1 deep space probe by swapping a wonky thruster system for a disused secondary one to ensure the craft can keep its radio antenna pointing at the Earth.
Tags: Voyager, NASA, Spacecraft
The CT-2 is a shape-shifting four-wheeled urban getabout, a tandem two-seater that can park in motorcycle spaces and filter through traffic – but that spreads its wheels wider for stability at higher speeds. It's slated for production in 2026.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Shape-shifting, Transformable, urban transport, urban vehicle, Electric Vehicles, tandem
After five days in orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission, which conducted the world's first commercial spacewalk, has returned safely to Earth. At 3:36 am EDT, the Dragon capsule Resilience splashed down off the coast of the Dry Tortugas, Florida.
Tags: Spacewalk, Space Tourism, SpaceX, Dragon
If you're not really into salt-water tanks or don't spend a lot of time in coral reefs, there's still a high probability you may have heard of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse fish. Likely because last year it passed the "mirror test", showing that it can recognize its own face in a mirror. Now researchers have found there's much more to it than we thought.
Tags: Fish, nature, Mirror, Marine Biology, Intelligence, Animal science
China leads the world in terms of renewable energy resources like solar power. And not just by a small margin either, making over twice as much solar power as the next highest country, the USA. Where do you store any excess solar energy for use when the sun isn't shining? Answer: in ridiculously big batteries.
Tags: Battery, Lithium-ion, Power Management, Grid-Level Energy Storage
The Pioneer 25 marks a momentous step in the world of motorsports as it passed the mandatory FIA crash tests. Developed solely for Extreme H, the world’s first hydrogen-powered motorsport, the car has a top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph).
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: hydrogen-engine, Hydrogen, Hydrogen-powered, Racing, Off-road
The APS-C chip in the Samsung NX1 was the largest BSI CMOS sensor we'd then seen. It would be another four years before one was used again, in the Fujifilm X-T3.
Photo: DPReview.com
Ten years ago today, in 2014, Samsung announced its flagship mirrorless camera, the NX1. Built around Samsung's own 28MP APS-C BSI-CMOS sensor, the NX1 arrived with a level of performance not previously seen in a mirrorless camera.
The NX1 featured a hybrid autofocus system with phase-detect AF points across 90% of the frame, 15fps burst shooting (along with an AF system that could keep up), 4K video and impressive wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. And, at a body-only price of $1499, it arrived at a competitive price for its class.
When I was assigned to lead the review of the NX1, Samsung was barely on my radar as a camera manufacturer. Of course, I knew Samsung manufactured cameras, but like many serious photographers, I had never used one. To be blunt, I was blown away by what the NX1 could do, and it turned out to be the most capable mirrorless camera I had experienced to date.
I had used quite a few mirrorless cameras before the NX1, but the NX1 reset my expectations for what a mirrorless camera could do, and it felt like the first one that had the potential to replace a high-performance DSLR. The biggest compliment I could give it was that after using it for a short time, I stopped thinking about the fact that it was a mirrorless camera and just got on with the business of taking photos. I was so impressed that I picked the NX1 as my 2014 Gear of the Year.
You wouldn't mistake the NX1's 2.76M-dot OLED viewfinder for an optical viewfinder. Still, the implementation was good enough that after a short time, I stopped noticing it and focused on taking photos, a task for which the EVF was exceptionally well-designed.
Photo: Dale Baskin
The NX1 built a reputation for pushing the limits of mirrorless technology, and over the years, it acquired an almost mythical status in camera lore. Even now, I hear people speculate about what the camera industry might look like today if Samsung had remained in the business.
To be clear, many modern mirrorless cameras can run rings around the NX1 thanks to technologies like AI-based autofocus, stacked sensors, and video tools like Log gamma and internal ProRes or Raw recording. However, the NX1 was ahead of the curve, and it took several more years for those other advancements to come to fruition.
"The NX1 built a reputation for pushing the limits of mirrorless technology, and over the years, it acquired an almost mythical status in camera lore."How far ahead of the curve was it? Far enough that many people didn't even have computers capable of playing the H.265 video files the camera produced. The NX1 was the first time I can remember listing the same feature – the H.265 (HEVC) video codec – as both a pro and a con in the conclusion: pro because the codec was more advanced than the H.264 codec in everyday use at the time, pointing the way to the future, and con because many users had to run the NX1's video files through third-party software to convert it to a format that they could open on their computers.
The NX1 was by no means perfect. In our review, I called out the over-sensitive touch screen and some awkwardly located buttons, but these weren't significant shortcomings.
One factor that impressed us was Samsung's commitment to improving the camera through firmware updates. It provided several updates in the months after launch, some of which added significant features or performance improvements, particularly for video.
I was so impressed by the NX1 that I picked it as my 2014 Gear of the Year. Unfortunately, Samsung exited the camera market a few months later.In fact, a firmware update was responsible for delaying our review of the NX1 by a couple of months. About three days before our first review was set to publish, Samsung sent us a new firmware update that was only days from public release. It changed and improved the camera so much that it rendered much of our review obsolete. As a result, I had to retest almost every major feature on the camera, a task that took several weeks, and I essentially wrote an entirely new review, which is the version you read on DPReview.
Despite the fact that Samsung exited the dedicated camera market years ago, I have to admit that I still sometimes wonder how the industry might be different today if Samsung had stayed the course, creating competitive products that pushed the limits of what technology could do in a mirrorless camera. Of course, we'll never know, but it's certainly fun to speculate.
